THE CALL TO RETURN

BY PR DR JEREMY CHEW

“RETURN TO ME, AND I WILL RETURN TO YOU,”

SAYS THE LORD OF HOSTS. “BUT YOU SAY, ‘HOW SHALL WE RETURN?’”

MALACHI 3:7

“Return” is the Old Testament word for repentance. It is the watchword of all the prophets that bids the listeners to turn 180 degrees around and go back to God. It is a word that combines in itself the two requisites of repentance: to turn from evil and to turn to good.

The destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. followed by captivity was a catastrophic wake-up call for its inhabitants. But now, in 430 B.C., the people were in a drugged stupor, too lethargic to care. The cosmic shake-up had slid into a nonchalant shrug.

“I have loved you,” the LORD said to them, but in response they asked, “How have You loved us?” (Mal 1:2). And again, “A son honours his father and a servant his master, but you despise my name,” the LORD told them. In reply, they questioned, “How have we despised Your name?” (Mal 1:6). So God named them some examples. “You are presenting defiled food on My altar. You say that the LORD’s table deserves no respect. You brought crippled and diseased animals for offering that I am sure you wouldn’t to the governor” (Mal 1:7-8). “Oh! How tiresome this is!” the people snorted in reply (Mal 1:13).

The problem of the people wasn’t a violent rebellion, but a disinterested self-righteous attitude. The initial shock of captivity had ebbed away and was replaced by apathy which became their new norm.

Have we fallen into a similar spiritual stupor as the Judeans? Has the initial fighting spirit when Covid19 first hit us waned into an attitude of indifference, that we accept as a new norm? If so, what should we do?

God is saying to us the same thing He said to the Judeans: “Return to Me, and I will return to you” (Mal 3:7). Ironically, we are the only ones who need to turn around and “return” for God has never moved. We are the ones that have left Him. Like the loving father in the parable of the Prodigal Son, He is always longing for us to return to Him. This is a call not only to return to God physically, but also to return to God with your heart.

“FOR HE IS OUR GOD, AND WE ARE THE PEOPLE OF HIS PASTURE AND THE SHEEP OF HIS HAND. TODAY, IF YOU WOULD HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS…”

PSALM 95:7-8A